Balta1701

I'll be honest, I can't find any reason why the Nats wouldn't be allowed to draft in the top 10. https://www.mlb.com/news/draft-rule-changes-with-new-cba

This also is potentially just depth for Charlotte right now.

There are things about the White Sox that remain very "Anti-Sabermetrics". Some of the big numbers that they've made us pay attention to over the last few years include: Swinging outside of the Strike Zone Walk Rate Ground Ball Rate/Launch Angle The White Sox are consistently terrible on all of these, perhaps the worst in the league since measurements began on Launch Angle! What's more, they're actually worse this year with new hitting coaches than last year, they took what Sabermetrics was saying "You're doing wrong" and said "nuh uh, we're gonna do it more!!!" It is also worth noting that Sabermetrics has stuff to say about lineup construction which we typically ignore, and there is a lot of effort to measure defense in a quantitative way, and all those measurements are basically exhausted in saying how bad the White Sox are defensively. Those are a few examples from the hitting and coaching staff of things where this type of data processing is important and where they should know it, and where the White Sox work in a completely opposite approach. Lineup construction, patient but effective approach at the plate, getting the ball off the ground, value of defense.

Botching Giolito is easy. Don’t move him.

I think it’s a testament to the power of the technique that an organization operating this poorly in so many aspects was able to pull off a playoff appearance at all.

Unfortunately, not making moves is making moves, or at least dictating them. If they don’t make moves, Giolito walks as a FA, Kelly walks as a FA, Lopez walks as a FA, they don’t clear any money so their budget next offseason stays super tight, and they find no depth to help next years roster which they are absolutely desperate for. Not very active makes a ton of decisions for the winter right now - even worse than last offseason.

While I would be content to be rid of him, I would be confused as to why he was allowed to make decisions on the rosters future in July if he wasn’t safe. Desperation moves when it looked like he had to do something to save his job is how we got Shields.

We're still in a world where Cleveland and Tampa Bay are regularly competitive. Arizona is making a move this year, as is Baltimore. Miami is somehow good and I never saw that coming. If the season ended right now, 5 of the 12 playoff teams would be in the bottom 10 in payroll. Teams like Atlanta and Houston spend comparably to the White Sox, but they are regularly bringing up prospects as well, setting them up for multiple World Series appearances.

People throw around emphatic statements about people being clean early in their careers when they could have used the stuff and gotten away with it consequence-free, when we have plenty of reason to suspect that those same people would have been willing to bend the rules because we know they kept using later in their careers when the league started collecting evidence and the risk of getting caught went up. Why is it not equally disappointing when people assert they are totally certain that a player like Bonds was clean early in their career?

You can decide whether you believe Palmeiro or Canseco, but Canseco's book in 05 named Palmeiro as a guy that Canseco introduced to the stuff when he got to the Rangers. Palmeiro claims this is untrue, as he did before Congress in 2005 while famously pointing his finger at them, but then he tested positive for the exact same steroid that Canseco says he gave him, Winstrol - which Jose wrote that he recommended because you could take it without your body exploding in size and causing suspicion. And that sure sounds like Palmeiro's career arc to me. I'm not compelled to use the same standard of proof as a court of law to believe someone was a cheater. Given that reality, pretty well defined case to me of a guy who had been using his entire career, expected to get away with it until he retired, and turned defensive when the details came out.

How many teams are actually going to be looking for SS or middle infield help? The Giants, since Crawford is on the list. Boston needs help, but they do get Story back and no one knows what they’re doing anyway. The Dodgers could use some depth but also expect Lux back. Teams that are set or who have already spent at that position: NYY, TBR, Bal, Tor, Min, Det, Tex, Hou, Sea, SDP, Ari, CHC, STL, MIL, Cin, Atl, NYM, Phi. Not even sure where a $10 million offer would come from for most of those guys. Maybe some teams would want depth or would shuffle guys around?

Counterpoints: Adam Dunn was paid $50 million and p it up precisely 0 fWAR over 4 seasons. Grandal has put up 5 fWAR over 3 seasons for about $60 million. Grandal has been far better. Neither of these match the $13 million we paid for -1.2 fWAR from LaRoche. This is recency bias. Stop saying accountability and say the failure need fired. Colas shouldn’t have even given the job nor Sosa, but that was literally the only way they could keep up the illusion of a full lineup. They couldn’t compete for good FAs at positions they needed and even had to backload the deals for Benintendi and Clevinger just to get them signed, the only other option was to admit how bad the situation was after they held all their pieces at the deadline last year. Bringing these guys up still allowed Hahns apologists to fantasize that the White Sox weren’t destined to flop. While rushing these guys is a problem, it is a minor one and a symptom of the much deeper rot. Signing Harper would Have helped and been a big factor in 2021 and 2022. But it would not have solved the much bigger problems with development and scouting. Not sure I care about the Grifol stuff. This was a clearly bad team coming into the year. The best coach in baseball history would still have a bad team with poor chemistry. Moncada did produce some. In fact he has quite a bit more production than Beckham, or the top pitchers from that 2000 system in Wells and Rauch. There’s also some recency bias here, although I’m ok with an argument since Moncada was a number 1 overall prospect.

This is the White Sox. Him playing on Friday has surprisingly little to do with whether he's actually healthy enough to play.

As pleasant and exciting as this White Sox season has been, I figure we're allowed the occasional thread hijacking.

Well that does explain why he slowed down at the end of the 2nd round.

It's catching so blah, not sure how well we do with that on data, but both Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus are big fans of Seby Zavala's defense this year.

How do you prove he was clean? No need to reply, as it was a rhetorical question and although you insist he was clean, you also have the same amount of proof as I do. What I do have - a long documented history that he cheated for the full second half of his career. Why I should grant this player the benefit of the doubt like you do, I have no idea.

Barry Bonds on the same steroid as Pablo Ozuna: Barry Bonds once he started the Cream and the Clear, BALCO's infamous steroids containing Tetrahydrogestrinone: All your assertions that he was skinny are telling me is that he switched steroids to something more potent. This is what happened when he switched from soft-core stuff to ""some hard-core stuff", exactly as he phrased it.

You literally just said Barry Bonds can't possibly have been using in the 1980s because he was skinny! That's not evidence in the least. All you've proven to me is that THG is an incredibly effective steroid! Let's try this: Pablo Ozuna on steroids: Barry Bonds, just as skinny.

I think the $14 million on Anderson next year to see if maybe he can be worth something minor at the trade deadline isn't a particularly good investment.

You're speculating on frame size, mass, and leanness! Come on. Here's a card of the first guy in MLB who was suspended for steroids once the public suspensions started: Here's a white sox player who was using: The idea that only big guys were on steroids and you can judge this by your eyes has long been known to be laughable.

His identical teammate went in the 5th https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/k/kwanst01.shtml

Yes. Bonds could easily have been on things to help recover from stealing 40 bases a year back in the 1980s without having it cause his body explode, and then his body exploded in 1998-1999 when he switched steroids from the things he had been using to Tetrahydrogestrinone.

ARod said that he didn't start using steroids until he was with the Yankees and he tested positive in the 2003 trial test wave also. Sigh. He did this for years, and as soon as he had any struggles with the Yankees - oops time for a new supplier. My opinion of ARod - give me any reason to think that he didn't use steroids in high school, before he was a #1 pick? Bonds - the 1980s were a complete Wild West. Why on Earth should I assume that he was clean then? His purported "I'm going to go on the hard stuff" remark is totally consistent with the idea that he spent years doing softer stuff.